www.thelittlehouseatorthez.com

Views taken around the town of Orthez

We include 35
photographs taken around the town of Orthez. For shots of
The Little House, please go to view the little house.
Click on a photograph for a
larger view. Most of these photographs were taken
in mid-February, hence the lack of leaves on the deciduous
trees.

Traditional Béarnaise rooves

Open air laundry

Orthez,
which
for 222 years was the capital of Béarn (an independant state
until 1620 when it was taken over by France), has a significant
Protestant history. The area was severely affected by
brief but bloody religious wars and, on 24 August 1569, about
3000 catholics were massacred in Orthez. Although it was
deprived of its status as capital, it was endowed with a
protestant university, and remained one of the most important
towns in Béarn. There is a museum dealing with the subject
(Le Musée du Protestantisme). Orthez lies in the
geographical area permitted to produce wines of the
Béarn-Bellocq appellation. A new vineyard in the town was
opened in 1991 to commemorate 600 years since the death of
Gaston Fébus (Gaston III of Foix-Béarn, of which he made Orthez
the capital). The three views to the right below would,
when the weather isn't hazy, have the Pyrénnées as a backdrop.

Protestant church on left

View looking down to town centre

Town from the
commemorative vineyard

From the fortifications at the
Moncade tower

The
Château
(castle) Moncade, from which the town and region was
administered for a while in the Middle Ages, has partly
disappeared but the keep, or tower, the "Tour Moncade", is still
the dominating visual feature of the town. This is the
tower that appears at the top of these website pages. The
moat has the typical shape of French moats of the period
(somewhat different from those in England). The tower was
more recently used as a prison. It is open to visitors
only in the summer months but the reward for climbing to the
top, in clear weather, is magnificent views including, of
course, the Pyrénnées. The Rue Moncade is the main road
from the tower to the river crossing which are all on one of the
main pilgrims’ routes through Aquitaine to Compostella.

The excavated moat

The Moncade Tower

Rue Moncade

Rue Moncade

The Château Moncade was built in the 13th century. Prior
to that the old town (the Bourg Vieux), at the bottom of the
hill near the river, was fortified by town walls of which there
are a few remnants. Subsequently two new boroughs (the
Bourg Moncade and, in between, the Bourg Neuf, the new borough)
were each separately enclosed by walls in the 13th
century. There are therefore remnants of three different
sets of town walls! While the three enclosed sites are
referred to as boroughs, they are quite small. The
dimensions of all three together only amount to approximately
800 metres by 250 metres (one fifth of a square kilometre).

Near Tour Moncade

A mediaeval tower - part of the
old walls of the Bourg Neuf, near Tour Moncade

Place du Foirail

Place du Foirail

Later, the town expanded to the east and west of the walls of
the 3 boroughs and there is architecture from a variety of
periods. The current Town Hall and the Place d'Armes lie
just outside the line of the old town walls. The Town Hall
and other significant buildings were taken over by the German
occupying forces during the second world war. (N.B.
Orthez was the boundary of occupied France in this area and was
like a frontier town in some respects). The history of the
occupation and the resistance is an interesting story in its own
right.

Place Brossers

Place Brossers

Rue Saint-Gilles

Town Hall in the
Place d'Armes

At the bottom of the hill, at the "Gave" (river), is the
boundary of the oldest inhabited part of the town. The
Pont Vieux (the old bridge) is said to be one of the most
beautiful examples of mediaeval defensive architecture preserved
to the present day, with its roofed tower (there were originally
two) standing on the bridge itself. Although some repair
of the parapets was required, it survived an attempt to demolish
it by Napoleon's military engineers, intending to deny the use
of it to Wellington's forces during the Battle of Orthez.
Demolition of all other bridges between Bayonne and Pau was
successful. (The Battle, 27 February 1814, was ultimately
concluded on the rising ground just outside the town to the
north and west. It was the final battle of the Peninsular
War, although the Battle of Toulouse was fought after Napoleon
had capitulated. The Napoleonic forces were put to flight,
losing about 2500 of their troops killed or wounded, and another
1000 or more taken prisoner). Parts of the old town walls
can be seen (see photograph below) rising from the river bank
between the old and new bridges.

Place d'Armes at start of Le
Tour de France 2007 - Stage 16

Rue Jeanne-d'Albret looking
towards Tour Moncade

Pont-Vieux from Pont-Neuf

Rue du Pont-Vieux

The south side of the river is called Départ. For
centuries the old bridge was the river crossing and the way into
the town for those coming to trade goods as well as for pilgrims
making for Compostella. While the old road is still used,
solely by the residents' vehicles, the bridge itself is now for
pedestrians only. The new bridge, more suited to vehicular
traffic was buit in the mid-nineteenth century, as was the
railway.

Impasse de l'Ecorcherie, Départ

Rue Gaston-Planté, Départ

Rue du Pont-Vieux, Départ

Pont-Neuf from Pont-Vieux

The
area
of the Bourg-Vieux, the oldest part of the existing town, lies
immediately on the north bank. The Rue Craverie (formerly
the Rue de la Graverie, possibly taking its name from "gravier",
or gravel, extracted from the river), the Rue des Aiguilletiers,
and the Rue Bourg-Vieux follow the ancient street plan.

Rue du Pont-Vieux from the bridge

Rue Craverie

Rue Craverie

Rue Craverie

Rue Bourg-Vieux

Rue des Aiguilletiers

Rue des Aiguilletiers

Immediately to the west of the fortified "Bourg-Vieux", lies
the area known as La Moutète which gives its name to the
large market hall. The word "moutète" or "moutet"
comes from a Béarnaise word meaning "mound". The lower
end of this area is thought to be the site of the original
fortress, pre-dating the Bourg-Vieux. While nothing of
this remains above ground, walls of 1.3 metres (4 feet)
thickness were found during excavations in 1967 for the new
section of road (Avenue de la Moutète). Above this
avenue is the Place Saint-Pierre and the church, constructed
around 1300. Built after the earliest of the
Bourg-Neuf's town walls, it is hypothesised that additional
walls, which are not visible above ground, were built to
conjoin it. There is a cultural centre incorporating a
theatre and bookshop in the Place which, on Tuesday
mornings, also fills up with market stalls. There are
shops, bars and restaurants here and within a short walking
distance.